Morbid: A Love Story (2009) Reviews

• The only honest review you'll find...

  dontbuymorbid2009-11-20

  I had the unfortunate fate of being tricked into buying this movie at a recent horror convention by the writer/director and a large, bumbling man in a crappy mask. He claimed the movie was a gore-fest, bragging about the violence, nudity, and cannibalism, and thought we would give it a shot since it was so cheap. I had to see what the deal was, and after watching this "film" I was shocked at the writer/director's audacity. Every single person that paid any amount of money for this was severely ripped off, and are going to be saddened when they pop the disc in. I've seen plenty of bad movies, REALLY bad movies, and a lot of them are actually enjoyable. This movie is torture to get through, and although the director would probably say this is a good thing, since he thinks he made a great exploitation film, I couldn't believe he was actually selling this to people. Within the first minute I knew that this was going to be the longest hour and a half of my life. Terrible framing, writing, editing, sound, every aspect of this movie is beyond unwatchable. I can't even explain how big this guy's ego was about his movie either, he even wrote a terrible scene in which the characters talk about going to see his other movies, which are probably even worse than this, if they even exist. He actually thinks he can get distribution for this crap, although any sane distributor would burn this thing immediately. Pretty sure I heard some John Carpenter music in there, doubt he paid to use that, and the rest of the music is just plain annoying. The entire project seems like it was made by emo 12 year olds. The ending is especially bad, although I knew it would be. Pretty much the most unoriginal, unintelligent, annoying movie I've ever seen. The cheesiest Dexter-rip-off voice overs ever recorded, one set of gross looking boobs, annoying screaming, crappy fight scenes with no sound effects, bad direction, mismatched sound levels, super-fake film filters on the cheap video, old trailers and commercials in the beginning as seen in every Quentin Tarantino movie, just plain dumb emo idea for a horror movie. Anybody that says this movie is anything but terrible is lying to make the director feel better about his turd-baby of a film, and you can tell by the size of his ego that a lot of people do. Makes me so mad to think that he wasted $13,000 bringing this crap to life, I could have made a better film for $13.

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• my review of Morbid a true love story

  filmFANattik2009-11-27

  One of the comments i read hit the nail exactly on the head. I saw the film, and honestly it didn't look poorly made to me, i thought it was suppose to look that way and it was a great effect..but yes, for the "older generation" me being in my mid forties..I definitely saw the throw back to the clichés on classical horror films. The movie had some pretty disturbingly gory graphic scenes, which are typically cut out of any horror movie you would see at a movie theater. But there was nothing lost in this footage. I loved the scene where the characters are talking about "paysons" other films and immediately caught the quenton terintinoish humor in that. Anyone with a since of humor would have had to have found that hysterical. We all know that this guy probably hasn't made many films..but what a great way to actually get your name out there by putting it in your own movie. That is very original. This is a student film showing great talent. Seriouly, I've seen way way worse on the big screen. I think it was very original and creative and glad i paid the full $5.00 for it. It was worth every penny and glad I had the director sign it cause i know it will be valuable eventually.

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• What a terrible mess you've made.....

  Sean1022182009-11-27

  That line is not contained anywhere in the film, I wasn't being coy, I was scolding the director for even having the idea for this "film". Which really, to call anything shot on an XL1 or DVX100A (what is this, 2004?) that has been transferred to this horrible quality is an insult to everything Eadweard Muybridge did in the late 1800's. Someone said this is a festival screener....at this quality I would have preferred a VHS copy, at least then the image wouldn't be in the wrong aspect ratio. Which begs the question, if the director can't figure out an aspect ratio (it's a button, seriously) then how are we supposed to believe he made a film of any substance? So after you're done taking the ideas of Jeff Lindsay and modifying them to fit current emo tides of popularity, all you need to do is go on LACasting and get a bunch of amateur actors. I won't let my horrified point of view affect my judgment of the actors, because you can tell Liam Smith, the lead actor, was a decent actor, however, he obviously had the disadvantage of working with an incompetent director, since there is no flow any given scene, entire ideas grind to a halt so the characters can messily try to serve the director's ego, discussing films of his that don't exist. It comes off as cheap and sad, like this scene is the only thing that gets the director up in the morning, as if someone else had said the words, not had them written by the director for them. I don't feel sorry for any of the other actors however, their lack of talent is only overshadowed by their obvious lack of enthusiasm. It's great to call yourself an actor, it's insulting to actual actors when you don't even try. A lot has been said of the gore content in this film. I ask, what gore? There were 10 max kills in the film, each one was sloppily filmed and the f/x looked like they were purchased at the Target clearance bin the day after Halloween. The much hyped "cannibalism" is Christian making a human shake, which doesn't really make sense, as the character has displayed no tendency towards mutilation or post-mortem fixation, the two main components of cannibalistic behavior. I forget, actual psychology has no place here. It's like Dexter, without the psychological implications, which is what makes Dexter work. Here, the main character wallows in self pity, but we as an audience can't react, because he's a serial killer, and he doesn't even have a convincing past to get him to the point he's at in the film. Of course, the whole point of the film is Christian's love story, while he recants his killing ways, which is hilarious, because if his synapses ever had the tendency not to kill and to love, it would have happened long before this point, and the events of this film would have never taken place. I'm a connoisseur of cheap horror films, and I can deal with bad film-making, as long as the film brings one element to the table. I can overlook silly dialogue when there are gorgeous shots to look at, or artfully done f/x. This movie has none of that. There aren't many different scenes, most of the movie consists of him finding a victim (most of the time it's randomly, which again, would defy the modus operandi of just about every real serial killer that ever existed) and the character hanging out with his friends and towards the end, his girlfriend. So instead of being a realistic dissection of a serial killer's behavior, it becomes the realization of the director's favorite things: coy serial killers, emo love stories, and really terrible special f/x. This is what happens when a half baked film school idea is funded, I guess. Instead of making a film with any substance, the director chose to go the cheap route, in some feigned attempt at a Martino or Lenzi movie. It isn't, because those films have competent musicians, cinematographers, set designers, and stunt men, where this film has a bunch of college kids, a $1,000 DV camera, a script that was seemingly written by a 14 year old BrokenCyde fan, and tons of fake blood from Target's clearance rack. Anyone brave enough to venture into the special features will only find self-serving (and equally silly) mini-documentaries on the film's production and theatrical premiere. The production scenes are just the director in his clashing orange hat (orange and blue? THAT is a color scheme) talking in front of the location that they were shooting at. A few other scenes show the crew standing around, the actors goofing around, and everyone having fun while they made the movie. I'm glad someone had fun during the run time of this film, because it certainly wasn't me. The premiere feature is silly, the director is so happy his movie is playing at the New Beverly Cinema (which he paid to do...) that he seemingly didn't notice that he couldn't even fill the theater, which honestly, isn't that hard. Despite that, the special features were seemingly not edited, since the camera man repositioning and refocusing were not edited out, rather, just lazily left in by whomever was supposed to be editing it. Don't be fooled. Even for a $1, you are wasting your money if you buy this, I personally encourage anyone who enjoys staring at bloody train wrecks to at least download it illegally so they can witness it for themselves. I mean, if you saw a dead body you'd stop to look at it, but you wouldn't pay a $1 to do so, would you? I didn't think so. You're smarter than that. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the director is not as smart as the rest of us.

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• Refreshing, not your typical Hollywood horror film

  gpayson2009-11-26

  This film was not what I expected. I recently met the director and a funny man in a mask at the last Fangoria Trinity of Terrors event. They were super enthusiastic to get their names out there and I was willing to give the one dollar donation to receive the film. I'm glad I did. The film was not your typical film. You can tell right away that is low budget but the story makes up for the that. It follows Christian, a twisted sociopath who is actually pretty comical. He has a crooked viewpoint on the world which causes him to see even the smallest offenders as worthy candidates to his brutal slaughter. We start off with Christian disposing of some victims (rather violently I might add) the goriest being a scene in which a man's tongue and Penis are cut off. We also have a topless women being stabbed in the vagina with knife, This is Payson's Screw You to typical Hollywood Standards. The film Progresses to Christian falling in love with a girl named Belle in his class. Christian deals with Love, something he has never felt before while trying to shove down his feelings of hate towards society. This leads to a pretty cool climax where Christian gets the girl and givers up his killing ways. I saw some hate on an earlier comment here and would like to debunk it. This person who rated it one star didn't catch the point of the film that it is a satire. It is cheesy at points on purpose. True horror fans will like this movie for the gore factor alone, Old people may not like it because it is more geared toward a college crowd, that guy also probably is more used to picking up fast food than a video camera and doesn't know what it takes to make a film. Not to mention the fact that the DVD I received at the same convention was a rough SCREENER meaning it wasn't finished but just put together for the festival. As a fellow film maker I can say that this film is a must watch for up and coming film makers looking to break into the business. Also if you can see the special features the short film "The Itch" is great better than the feature even. Also check out the behind the scenes. They are worth a look.

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• A Love Story that can be enjoyed by all....who are sick like me

  gophinator472009-11-27

  What a weird, vile, disgusting film. I love this thing. I bought this thing for a buck at the Fangoria festival in Vegas I would have gladly paid two bucks to see this thing. Upon turning it on you can tell that it is very low budget but it id extremely entertaining. I often found myself and my wife laughing out loud. It was a fun satire about clichés in horror films wrapped into a clever story that can be enjoyed by the family minus the nudity. I love the references to Halloween and the music track that the composer did with the guy from the Wu Tang Clan. Its balls out man. It hits all the classic elements needed for an eighties type film Blood, Boobs, Blood and a killer chords. I wish the director would get a bigger budget. I would like to see this thing either remade with a Hollywood budget or a sequel of some kind. The Itch on the DVD was pretty cool as well, a lot higher budget than the feature, shot on the RED ONE. If you are a true horror fan and like Visceral entertainment this is for you. If you are very conservative or can't forgive low budget film making don't bother.

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